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550 reviews for:
Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right
Arlie Russell Hochschild
4.09 AVERAGE
550 reviews for:
Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right
Arlie Russell Hochschild
4.09 AVERAGE
Worthy glimpse into how the red half get it wrong or right.
2.5 stars
I do not think the publisher did this book any favors. Its marketing materials really do not match the contents of the book, which is a huge disservice to the author. The author who did a LOT of work and research and clearly did a good job of putting that into a book, but it's just not the book I was expecting to read.
Yes, it is about a liberal from California going to Louisiana and talking to a bunch of Tea Partiers, and trying to understand their point of view or as she calls it "trying to build an empathy wall." To do this, she uses a "keyhole" issue of the environment - many of their lives have been greatly affected by pollution, so she wants to understand why they would be against government assistance or regulations in these circumstances.
But in doing so, it seems that many other issues are pushed to the sidelines, and I don't feel like environmental regulations are a good comparison to things like abortion or race relations; it doesn't have the same human aspect. And, boy, I was really frustrated by many of the people profiled in here. I tried, but I cannot relate to someone who says they refuse to have sympathy for a starving child. And then another person presents as a reasonable idea for government money that we dig up WWII veterans from France and re-inter them here in the US. But... we can't help... the alive people who are here right now??
Oh, and there was an entire section on the "deep story" that the author uses to explain how many of these people came to feel the way they do about the current state of America, and it's told in the second person. No. Do not try to garner my sympathies by putting me in someone's shoes and saying what I would have thought in that situation, because it did not work at all.
If I had known this book was going to be so much about the environment going in, I would have had a much different perspective on what to expect. I double-checked and the environment isn't anywhere in the publisher summary (one brief mention of a sinkhole). It really skews the way this book comes across.
I do not think the publisher did this book any favors. Its marketing materials really do not match the contents of the book, which is a huge disservice to the author. The author who did a LOT of work and research and clearly did a good job of putting that into a book, but it's just not the book I was expecting to read.
Yes, it is about a liberal from California going to Louisiana and talking to a bunch of Tea Partiers, and trying to understand their point of view or as she calls it "trying to build an empathy wall." To do this, she uses a "keyhole" issue of the environment - many of their lives have been greatly affected by pollution, so she wants to understand why they would be against government assistance or regulations in these circumstances.
But in doing so, it seems that many other issues are pushed to the sidelines, and I don't feel like environmental regulations are a good comparison to things like abortion or race relations; it doesn't have the same human aspect. And, boy, I was really frustrated by many of the people profiled in here. I tried, but I cannot relate to someone who says they refuse to have sympathy for a starving child. And then another person presents as a reasonable idea for government money that we dig up WWII veterans from France and re-inter them here in the US. But... we can't help... the alive people who are here right now??
Oh, and there was an entire section on the "deep story" that the author uses to explain how many of these people came to feel the way they do about the current state of America, and it's told in the second person. No. Do not try to garner my sympathies by putting me in someone's shoes and saying what I would have thought in that situation, because it did not work at all.
If I had known this book was going to be so much about the environment going in, I would have had a much different perspective on what to expect. I double-checked and the environment isn't anywhere in the publisher summary (one brief mention of a sinkhole). It really skews the way this book comes across.
This book in a summary:
Hochschild: I really want to understand why the right has such wrong ideas. Why would they be against government regulations and more government involvement?
Interviewee: Because the regulations we have aren't being followed. More regulation has led to more taxes which is only benefiting the people in power.
Hochschild: It's a real mystery. I can't understand it. Empathy Wall. The Great Paradox. What does it mean?
Hochschild: I really want to understand why the right has such wrong ideas. Why would they be against government regulations and more government involvement?
Interviewee: Because the regulations we have aren't being followed. More regulation has led to more taxes which is only benefiting the people in power.
Hochschild: It's a real mystery. I can't understand it. Empathy Wall. The Great Paradox. What does it mean?
This book is too depressing to get more than 3 stars.
Very informative though not prescriptive. A good reminder to watch our language. Are people *really* hicks or snobs depending on their political perspective? Absolutely fascinating appendix on facts vs perception. I'd consider this the emotional companion to the more intellectual/rhetorical book The Political Brain. No more hints because if you voted for Trump you should read this. Oh also if you voted for Clinton or other or even if you didn't vote.
This book is a conversation starter more than anything else, and personally I think we need more of that in this day and age. The author definitely writes with her own bias, but I don't think the point of this book is to be unbiased but rather to show that you can have empathy for people even if you fundamentally disagree with them. I do think she limits her scope a bit too much and I don't necessarily agree with all of her perceptions or conclusions. The book is far from perfect, but it was still an interesting and worthwhile read.
I think this is an important and helpful read, though not necessarily the "best book." I really appreciated Hochschild's presence as a narrator throughout, particularly when she would catch herself as inserting her own opinion or being "stuck on her own side of the empathy wall." I do think that her "deep story" and archetypal characters are illuminating, but I would have loved a greater understanding of the historical factors that created them -- though perhaps this is a disciplinary problem more than anything else. I appreciate that this is a pretty brief and accessible read (only about 250 pages, broken into digestible chapters), but I wish there had been more depth. I finished feeling like she certainly opened something up here, but I didn't feel like I have fully gotten it -- perhaps because of my own empathy wall. Although the book predominantly describes the experiences of and relationships between people, it reads in a very social science kind of way, rather than nonfiction that reads more like a memoir or novel, and perhaps if I felt like I as the reader was more a part of the narrative, I would have a greater sense of what it means to be part of that deep story myself.
Not really a fan of the writing style / the way the author presents her data. Often comes across as condescending. I walk away feeling like I didn’t really learn much that I didn’t already know.
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Moderate: Religious bigotry, Classism
Minor: Chronic illness, Racism
(Oops, the author is a her, not a him.)
4 stars because the book is well written, he starts from a very earnest and logical premise, and the author tries hard. I think he also makes a very good explanation of the views of the Strangers, but that explanation makes me mad though that's not his fault.
In short, he seems to say the Right has two major motivating factors:
1) White Grievance. He dresses this up and tries to give it some heft by calling it a "deep story" and dedicating a chapter fully explaining this (fraudulent) belief. At the core though, it's simply angry white people who have decided to blame the brown people for their problems rather than maybe giving an honest thought to their own actions in causing their malaise. (And by "own actions" I mean who they vote for, the policies they support. Not that they generally cause their own bad circumstances.)
2) These people are, and I wish it wasn't the case, just plain dumb. The book has:
-- The guy who says he'd be a millionaire if it wasn't for social security taxes
-- The gal who, living in one the most polluted hellholes in the country, thinks that industry can regulate itself
-- The folks who think that the latest oil plant to come to town will be their economic savior even though that scheme has failed for the last dozen oil plants to come to town
-- The mayor that says, in the same sentence, that unemployed blacks are just lazy but that employed blacks must have got there via affirmative action.
-- That the "experts" don't know anything.
I had to quit at the 2/3 point as I just don't feel it was going to go anywhere informative.
4 stars because the book is well written, he starts from a very earnest and logical premise, and the author tries hard. I think he also makes a very good explanation of the views of the Strangers, but that explanation makes me mad though that's not his fault.
In short, he seems to say the Right has two major motivating factors:
1) White Grievance. He dresses this up and tries to give it some heft by calling it a "deep story" and dedicating a chapter fully explaining this (fraudulent) belief. At the core though, it's simply angry white people who have decided to blame the brown people for their problems rather than maybe giving an honest thought to their own actions in causing their malaise. (And by "own actions" I mean who they vote for, the policies they support. Not that they generally cause their own bad circumstances.)
2) These people are, and I wish it wasn't the case, just plain dumb. The book has:
-- The guy who says he'd be a millionaire if it wasn't for social security taxes
-- The gal who, living in one the most polluted hellholes in the country, thinks that industry can regulate itself
-- The folks who think that the latest oil plant to come to town will be their economic savior even though that scheme has failed for the last dozen oil plants to come to town
-- The mayor that says, in the same sentence, that unemployed blacks are just lazy but that employed blacks must have got there via affirmative action.
-- That the "experts" don't know anything.
I had to quit at the 2/3 point as I just don't feel it was going to go anywhere informative.